Coronavirus Florida: DeSantis: Florida nursing homes safer than other states

Wednesday

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With COVID-19 cases ravaging nursing homes across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis went on the defensive Wednesday, insisting Florida has done more to protect the elderly than most other states.

Pointing to charts that showed that Florida has had far fewer deaths per capita than New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and even Colorado, DeSantis insisted that the state’s strategy to protect those most at risk for the deadly disease has worked.

"Florida’s approach was to avoid introducing the disease into long-term care facilities," he said at news conference from the Capitol. "We drew a firm red line."

State health officials on Wednesday reported that 776 nursing home residents and staff have died of COVID-19, including 83 in Palm Beach County. But, DeSantis insisted the number is low, considering Florida is the third most populous state in the nation and has a high concentration of senior citizens.

Criticizing New York, which he also blames for bringing the coronavirus into Florida, DeSantis said the Empire State initially required nursing homes to take COVID-19-infected patients from hospitals to free up needed critical care beds.

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That allowed the virus to spread among New York’s most frail citizens, he said.

In contrast, DeSantis prohibited Florida hospitals from discharging patients with the disease to the state’s 4,400 long-term care facilities, which are home to 150,000 residents and employ 200,000 people.

That policy, he said, is one of the key reasons an average of only two elder-care residents per 100,000 people have died in Florida since the pandemic began in mid-March. The actual number is 3.5 per 100,000.

In New Jersey, out of every 100,000 people in the state, 51 nursing home resident have died. In New York, nearly 27 have died. Even Colorado, which has had a comparatively low 1,067 deaths, more than 10 nursing home residents have died per capita.

While DeSantis made the same claims about the number of nursing home residents who have been infected by the coronavirus, those assertions couldn’t be verified. The state doesn’t release a running total of nursing home residents and staff who have been infected.

For instance, although it reported 5,231 residents and staff were infected on Wednesday, that is only a snapshot. As people recover or die, they drop off the list.

In contrast, the state reports the total number of people in the state who have ever been infected by the virus. On Thursday, there were 42,402 confirmed cases statewide, including 4,176 in Palm Beach County.

Still, state numbers clearly show that Florida’s coronavirus deaths — both in the general population and in long-term care facilities — are continuing to mount.

With 49 new deaths reported on Wednesday, the state’s death toll rose to 1,898, including non-residents who died in Florida. That includes 263 people in Palm Beach County, where an additional nine people were reported dead of COVID-19 overnight.

Of the total fatalities statewide, 41 percent were residents or workers at long-term care facilities, according to state reports. In Palm Beach County, roughly 30 percent of all deaths are linked to elder care homes.

And, in recent days, the trend has become more pronounced. Of the 293 people in Florida who were reported dead of COVID-19 in the past week, two-thirds of them were residents or workers at long-term care facilities.

In the county, the percentage was higher. Over the last seven days, 19 of the county’s 39 deaths, nearly 50 percent, were residents or staff of long-term care facilities.

To stop the spread of the virus in nursing homes, the state has begun transferring patients out of facilities that don’t have the ability to isolate patients who are infected, DeSantis said.

In Palm Beach County, 161 residents of roughly 60 long-term care facilities have been moved to local hospitals, according to the state nursing home regulators.

The state has also done surveillance testing at 25 nursing homes throughout the state. "If you’re doing surveillance testing and you continue getting negative, negative, negative, I think that’s a pretty good indication the virus isn’t permeating those facilities," he said.

A mobile testing lab, equipped to conduct 3,500 tests each day, last week began visiting elder-care facilities around the state, including in Palm Beach County.

While visitation will continue to be barred, he said he is trying to determine a way to allow family members to meet with aged loved ones, who have been isolated from the outside world for two months.

"Having the isolation does come at a psychological and social cost," he said. He said he is considering whether to give family members rapid-result tests so they would be allowed to visit their loved ones or requiring them to wear masks and other protective shields.

"I just want to know we have procedures in place that if someone wants to visit their mother, later we’re not going to have 50 more infections roiling the facility," he said.

While acknowledging that the number of cases in state prisons has increased in recent weeks, he didn’t express the same concern. Unlike nursing homes, he said prisoners are younger and therefore better able to combat the virus. Further, he said, few corrections officers have been sickened.

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The exception is South Bay Correctional Facility in western Palm Beach County. As of Wednesday, 63 inmates and a state-high 48 employees have been infected.

Statewide, 723 inmates and 208 corrections officers have been infected and nine inmates have died, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. Efforts have been made in recent weeks to increase testing and the state doesn’t allow visitors, state records show.

While keeping nursing homes on lockdown, DeSantis expressed a willingness to continue to relax other restrictions that have paralyzed lives and thrown thousands out of work.

He indicated he would bless emerging plans by Broward and Miami-Dade counties to reopen the types of businesses that reopened in Palm Beach County on Monday and elsewhere in the state on May 4.

With Palm Beach County commissioners on Friday set to finalize a decision on whether to let county residents return to the beach, starting Monday, DeSantis said he wouldn’t get involved in their decision-making. Whether to reopen beaches is up to local officials, he said.

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Still, he said, it his his job to attract new business to the state. He gave a shout-out to professional sports teams, inviting them to move their coronavirus-shortened seasons to the Sunshine State.

"All professional sports are welcome here for practicing and playing their games," he said. "We want to have it here."

He encouraged Major League Soccer to confirm plans to move its season to the Orlando area. Likewise, he said, he’d "love" to see Major League Baseball move its games to Florida, albeit without fans.

"Our people are starved to have this back in their lives," he said.

The former Little League and college baseball player said he is also working on a plan that would allow youth sports to resume.